Hazardous waste sites

In the United States, an estimated three to four million children live within 1.6 km of at least one hazardous waste site (ATSDR, 2003). Furthermore, on the basis of data from 1255 hazardous waste sites, there were 1 127 563 children under six years of age living 

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The EPA Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) has responsibility for managing the analysis programs required under the U.S. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). The approved analytical methods are designed to analyze water, soil, and sediment from potentially hazardous waste sites to determine the presence or absence of certain environmentally harmful organic compounds. The methods described here all require the use of GC/MS. 

Electrokinetics. Electrokinetics is a tested technology that has been used for over half a century to dewater and stabilize soils, and has recently been investigated for in situ use at hazardous waste sites (23). Primarily used for metals removal, the technology utilizes an electrical field to generate a flow and concentration gradient in porous and semiporous soils. 

Zomberg, R. and B. Wainwright, Waste Minimization Applications in Industiy and Hazardous Waste Site Remediation, Riverdale, New York, 1992/1993, p. 37. 

Air contaminant releases from hazardous waste sites can occur from wastes placed aboveground or belowground. The following are categories of air contaminant releases ... 

An extremely difficult task is the estimation of emissions from hazardous waste sites. Frequently, both the amounts of materials existing vithin the site and the compounds and mixtures that are represented are not known. Even if both of these pieces of information are reasonably well known, the conditions of the containers holding these chemicals are not initially known. 

Table 6. Geophysical Techniques, Their Application and Limitations at Hazardous Waste Sites (Johnson, 1986)...

Technique Technology Description Utilization at Hazardous Waste Sites Limitation on Application... 

Johnson, W. and P. Johnson. "Pitfalls of Geophysics in Characterizing Underground Hazardous Waste," In Management of Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Sites Proceedings, Hazardous Materials Control Research Institute, Washington, D C., p. 227-232, 1986. 

The use of a drain system permits the quick construction of a collection/removal system which also serves as a barrier for leachate from large, shallow sites. At the Sylvester hazardous waste site in Nashua, New Hampshire, a groundwater interception and recirculation system was installed as a method to retard further spread of the leachate plume until a remedial cleanup action could be implemented. The system was operated for 1 year until a containment wall and cap were constructed over the 20-acre site (McAneny, 1985). 

U.S. EPA. Case Studies Addendum 1-8 Remedial Response at Hazardous Waste Sites. Office of Research and Development, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1987. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Case Studies No. 1-23 Remedial Response at Hazardous Waste Sites, EPAy540/2/84-002b, March, 1984. 

In partieular, we will refer to Occupational Safety and Health Guidance Manual for Hazardous Waste Sites Activities, and the U.S. 

In many eases, treating sites as being hazardous waste sites ean help to minimize any assoeiated health and safety risk if more seriously eontaminated areas are diseovered during site remediation, or eleanup, workers will not be overexposed based on eurrent requirements. 

A required cleanup of an uncontrolled hazardous waste site, including investigation of known or suspected contamination to do the presence of hazardous substance ... 

For example, contaminated areas of a hazardous waste site potentially pose some level of health hazards. 

Occupational Safety and Health Guidance Manual for Hazardous Waste Site Activities. Prepared by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSHj, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), October 1985, p. 4-1. 

Only qualified individuals should be allowed to develop air monitoring strategies. In addition, only trained and qualified field personnel should operate sereening equipment and be allowed to interpret results. For many sites, the results obtained from direet reading instruments ean help determine a variety of important faetors on a hazardous waste site. These faetors inelude ... 

There are three main types of work zones at a hazardous waste site the exelusion (or hot) zone, the eontamination reduetion (or deeontam-ination) zone, and the support (or eold) zone. The following provides a diseussion of eaeh type of zone. 

For most hazardous waste sites with proper planning the situation is known before remediation activities begin. The support zone location needs to be carefully considered at the planning stages of the project. A better solution to the theoretical problem at hand would be to move the support zone further from the source of contamination. If the support zone can be placed far enough away, the likelihood for exposure at the support zone is minimized. 

Handling hazardous ehemieals has beeome part of most people s everyday living. Just eonsider gasoline, and how most people fill their own tanks. In the manufaeturing arena, ehemieals are eommonplaee. On hazardous waste sites there are a variety of unknown ehemieal substanees and other hazards that may take the form of a solid, liquid, or gas. The eflfeets of exposure to toxie ehemieals may either be immediate (e.g., aeid burns) or delayed (e.g., lung damage from inhaling asbestos). There are four routes of ehemieal exposure that exist ... 

Nonemergency medical care should be arranged for hazardous waste site personnel who are experiencing health effects resulting from an exposure to hazardous substances. Off-site medical care should make sure that any potential job-related symptoms or illnesses are evaluated in the context of the employee s exposure. Off-site medical personnel should investigate and treat non-job-related illnesses that may put the employee at risk because of task requirements [1]. 

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